Boys in the Summer!

I don't believe I would be fooling anyone at all if I told you that I didn't have the heart of a tom boy (minus the bug thing). I mean all that adventure and dirt under your fingernails and fort building! The building was the best part of forts. I loved all the hammer and nails and making the desks inside because at the completion of the fort, officers had to be decided and dues collected in a tupperware, were paid for all the things that would done by the former "building crew", now "club members". Except that it seems like that's when the fun would end. All the work was done and there we sat, in our fort, looking forward to eating lunch with the club and then that's it, building over, fun gone.

Anyway, today I got a glimpse into the summer of the boys next door et. al. Somehow, accidently (9 year old fingers making quotation marks) CC's skateboard ended up in the main drain under the sidewalk. I work with the garage door open, but didn't really notice what was up until I heard one of the big metal man hole covers being moved around. With a group huddled around peering down, it was all I could do to remind myself I am not 10 and I am not a boy. Double dang!

But I had to walk across the street for some "help" from my neighbor, so I grabbed my camera and strolled right by the uncovered drain and overheard the possy (soon to be fort builders/clubmembers I'm sure) talking TO someone DOWN below.

When I asked what was up, they all stood up to tell me how the skateboard accidently (8 year old fingers making QM again) fell into the drain on the other side of the street,

but the man hole cover over there was sealed shut and so they sent the smallest guy down on this side of the street and he was going to crawl through the drain pipe under the asphalt across to the other side to get the skateboard! Lord, have mercy, I found me some adventure! Except that the only thing I kept picturing was a fire engine or two and CNN and trench digging. Well, littlest boy decided the drain was too small (and perhaps too dark, praise Jesus!) to do the crawl.

Then the fun ended. The neighbor "man" came out and with all the boys there, and now a hero of their own gender, he was kinda of in and I was well...a girl. Relinquished to photographer, at least they let me stick around to document the fun! CC's mom got home and came over...there was all kinds of fear on her face when they told her about their "crawling under the street plan" followed by the necessary lecture regarding drain pipes and small children, the skateboard was rescued and it seemed like the excitement was passing so I headed back across the street. But not before calling out over my shoulder, "hey if you guys want to build a fort tomorrow, I have some wood and a tupperware for the dues!"